Clinical and Psychological Patterns in Auto-erythrocyte Sensitivity

Abstract

Auto-erythrocyte sensitivity is a syndrome characterized by painful reddish lesions on the skin that come on very abruptly, and they rapidly become ecchymotic in character. Originally described by Gardner and Diamond in 1955 (1), 17 cases have now been reported (2-9). Since Gardner and Diamond observed that intradermal injection of red cell stroma could produce lesions resembling those seen clinically, they suggested that the cause of the disease might be autosensitivity to erythrocyte stroma. Little further light on this unusual syndrome was shed, however, until in 1961 Ratnoff and Agle (6, 7) called attention to the presence of numerous hysterical